Episode #329 – Full Transcript

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Transcripts

Podcast #329 from https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2015/08/329-is-the-gmo-food-scare-blown-out-of-proportion-top-5-mma-biohacks-much-more/

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Introduction: In this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness show: Is The GMO Food Scare Blown Out Of Proportion, Top 5 Biohacks For MMA, Top 5 Natural Arthritis Cures, J-Shape vs. S-Shape Spine, Far Infrared vs. Near Infrared Saunas, How To Gain Muscle Without Weightlifting, and much more!

He’s an expert in human performance and nutrition, voted America’s top personal trainer and one of the globe’s most influential people in health and fitness.  His show provides you with everything you need to optimize physical and mental performance.  He is Ben Greenfield.  “Power, speed, mobility, balance – whatever it is for you that’s for natural movement, get out there! When you’re working all the studies done… studies that have shown the greatest effort to see…”  All the information you need in one place right here, right now on the Ben Greenfield Fitness podcast.

Brock:  If I sound really cold, it’s because I am.  I’m way up north in the Great White North visiting my mom and sister, and damn it’s cold.

Ben:  (crosstalk) Is it what it’s called the Great White North?

Brock:  Yeah!

Ben:  Isn’t that like out of the Hobbit or something like that?

Brock:  (laughs) I don’t – I don’t think so, maybe.

Ben:  Like giant magical phony to the Great White North with your symitar of justice?

Brock:  Well, all of us up here do have great big furry feet, so it’s a propo.

Ben:  That’s actually kinda funny ‘cause we didn’t talk before we started recording but I’m literally like dripping with sweat right now.  As I am occasionally prone to it ‘cause I don’t use an alarm.  I just don’t like what alarms do to your circadian rhythm and feelin’ one should wake naturally.

Brock:  Yeah.

Ben:  The problem is that I’ve got black out curtains, I’ve got like a sleep mask and I rely upon basically like my internal circadian rhythm and a very, very cry-far –cry of rooster most mornings to wake up.  And this morning my eyes pop open like 7:45.

Brock:  Woah, nice.

Ben:  So, right now I’ve been scrumbling ‘cause usually for me, 6 (excuse me) 6:30-ish.  So anyways, running behind and literally came straight from 30 minutes and doin’ my infrared, sauna yoga routine into here and stop along the way at the garden hose in between my office and sauna too.  Hose myself off, so literally like my pants are wet, I’m dripping with sweat.  I smell great ‘cause I’m doing a niacin detox, so, here we go.

Brock:  Oh!  Sweat and toxin.  Delicious.

News Flashes:

Brock:  For those of you who can’t smell Ben, you can catch up on everything what he’s been looking at lately over at twitter.com/bengreenfield and maybe you‘ll enlighten us on some of those new studies.

Ben:  Actually I just – I don’t actually stink when I do this infrared-sauna detox.  As a matter of fact, unless you’re doing like a rapid fat loss type of protocol, usually you don’t as much of the stench.  You also won’t get that ammonia like smell unless you’re actually breaking down proteins, like if I were doing merf inside the sauna maybe (laughs) you’d be a little stinky but at this point I’m just doing it to increase my stress resilience, my heat shock proteins, my blood flow, my epo, all that kind of stuff, and I might get a little bit of a heavy metal detox.  We’ll see, but now…

Brock:  You see, you smell like pennies.

Ben:  No copper has formed on my toenails or anything like that, no.  Anyways though, a few interesting news flashes.  And this one was quite relevant to me.  I actually this entire week, I’m engaged in personal meetings with a transcendental meditation instructor who is coming to my house and we’re doing like sessions like I had to have a white handkerchief, 2-3 sweet fruits, and… what else do I need, oh, 4-6 freshly cut flowers for our introductory session, and I’m developing like my own mantra and literally going through my own little personal TM course because I’ve always been curious about transcendental meditation and now I’m learning.  So, it’s kinda cool.

Brock:  That is kinda cool.

Ben:  Yeah, my instructor is pretty cool.  His name is Phillip, he’s like this – kinda like… hippie/…

Brock:  Ashkamar!

Ben:  No, something like I said -Phil, Bob.  No, he’s really cool.  He’s like – he’s red necks/yoggie/hippie kinda guys.  Kinda interesting, so.  Yeah, he teaches like ______[0:04:53.0] and transcendental meditation.  Anyways though, the reason I bring this up is there’s a really interesting study that came out in Science News about how gastro-intestinal disorders that we all struggle with, right, like well, I shouldn’t say we all, but so many people I talk to deal with constipation, irritable bowel, irritable bowel syndrome, gut inflammation, leaky gut, you know, all these issues even brain fog, some issues with the gut-brain access, and most of it is of course link to inflammation in the gut.

[0:05:22.5]

It’s not like there’s not a biological mechanism underlying things like IBS and IBD, but what this study looked into was what would happen with participants who are doing a nine week training program that cause them to consciously elicit a relaxation response, and the way that they are being taught to consciously elicit this relaxation response was through a deep physiologic state of relaxation and in particular they’re using a breath-work, meditation and prayer.  And what was happening was the actual genes responsible for altering the inflammatory markers associated with things like IBS and IBD appeared to be getting shutdown when these folks were doing their 15-20 minute relaxation practices.  Isn’t that interesting?

Brock:  That’s crazy!

Ben:  I mean, it makes sense ‘cause like when you step up on stage, you get gut-butterflies.  We all know that if you’re nervous or stress, like your gut response but – I – this is the same thing I tell people who are like trying to manage cortisol levels with like whatever – adaptogenic herbs and you know, all these different supplements like they aren’t work unless you also fix stress, and sleep, and relationships, and stuff like that, and I would take this to heart if you’re listening in and you have gut issues, you may also want to – if you’re not already doing something like very, very like parasympathetic and that doesn’t mean to outrun.  This means like getting inside your head, doing things like meditation, prayer, some kind of deep relaxation practice, journaling, you know, you name it.  It really looks like there’s a distinct effectiveness.  If I said that correctly on the inflammatory response in the gut.  Interesting, huh!

Brock:  Yeah!  Yeah, like when you mentioned when you bring up like butterflies in your stomach before a big presentation or something like that like sure, I’ve always felt but I’ve never actually thought that it was a gut thing?  I was just sort of manifesting in that area of my body not necessarily affecting my gut per se, so that’s – that is really surprising to me.

Ben:  Yeah, so you may no longer need to bring your explosive diarrhea screen to your big stage presentations, now Brock.

Brock:  (laughter)  Thank goodness for that.

Ben:  Thank goodness.  A couple of interesting articles on CBD which I’m always kinda keeping on my eye and now it’s one of my supplements of choice and now that we’re – we are actually here at greenfieldfitnesssystems producing like this – this cannabidiol extract, this organic cannabidiol extract.  Really interesting article on what it does for animals, and it turns out that the animal market metabol – metabol.  I should trade mark that metabols.  Medical cannabis and CBD – there’s a growing demand for it because it’s doing everything from like treating anxiety to aggressiveness, to stress, to even things like epileptic seizures in pets.  Also, one of the things that one article I’ll link to in the show notes for this episode that CBD is being used for particularly is – the degenerative joint issues in pets.  Things like dogs, and stuff like that.

Brock:  Yeah.  That’s really interesting.  It’s all over the place.  I saw everything.

Ben:  Yeah!  Yeah, so we’re not actually….

Brock:  It’s the miracle cure for your pet.

Ben:  Just to clarify for those of you who have missed the previous episodes we’ve done.  We’re not talking about getting your pet high.  Even though that would be fun.

Brock:  It might be a good time.

Ben:  Jar, peanut butter.  Hi dog!  Anyways though, what we’re talking about is cannibidiol, non-psychoactive component showing some pretty cool effects when it comes to giving it to phyto, so.

Brock:  Will it make my ugly dog cuter?

Ben:  If you take enough CBD possibly.

Brock:  They done perfect.

Ben:  So, the other interesting article that I wanted to mention just when I’m on the topic of CBD is that there’s a new study on PubMed about its ability to increase the rate at which fracture’s heel – like stress fracture’s heel.  So you get…

Brock:  Seriously?  This is ridiculous.

Ben:  Yeah, increase collagen cross-linking enzymes…

Brock:  Is there anything CBD can’t do?

Ben:  …that increase the – increase osteo-blastic activities.  Very interesting.  I do think “Mark my words” – I do think that the endo-cannibanoids system is going to be one of the more studied physiological systems of the upcoming – whatever, century or in the 20 or the 23rd, 24th now?

Brock:  The 25th century!

Ben:  Anyways though…

Brock:  So, do you think this is because of the legalization of marijuana in so many of the States now that people are actually doing all these studies?

Ben:  Uhm, it’s all on-going discovery.  I’ll be frank, I can’t disclose too much, like I’m meeting later on today with this huge medical cannabis company up in Canada about some of the work they’re doing just because of all these research on the endo-cannabinoid system, and pain, and the whole like you know, virgining medical marijuana industry in Canada, etc.  So, really interesting stuff.

[0:10:15.5]

Brock:  Yeah!

Ben:  Yup, so…

Brock:  Mind blowing.

Ben:  If you have a fractured pet, that’s…

Brock:  (laughs)  If you have an ugly, angry, smelly, fractured pet.

Ben:  That’s right.  I’m actually going to start a band called Fractured Pet.

Brock:  Fractured Pet.

Ben:  I was at the open mic night last night.  Middle of the week I went to a bar all by myself to go watch open mic night because I am preparing my place at for open mic night and wanted to kinda take a look at what was available with the amps look like, the stage look like, the ambiance, the acoustics, and everything.  So, I did some – what do you call it?  Reconnaissance?

Brock:  Reconnaissance…

Ben:  I did some open mic night reconnaissance last night.  So, I was that guy at the bar all by myself, standing in the back, taking notes on my iPhone.

Brock:   That’s – that’s okay, I must still respect you.

Ben:  I’m a prepper.

Brock:   Are you feelin’ good?  Or is it gonna go well?

Ben:  It’s gonna be awesome!  It’s be awesome, I will be the next Johnny Cash.  (chuckles)

Brock:   Mark my words.

Ben:  Mark my words.  Ah okay, the – what I described the best damn article of the year when it comes to defining conventional wisdom on GMOs and this one appeared on our friend Mark’s Daily Apple website.  I think everybody should go read this article to really wrap your head around.  What do you need to be worried about when it comes to GMOs.  Like…

Brock:   Actually, I’ve a better idea.  They can go over there and listen to…

Ben:  That’s right because Brock…

Brock:   Me, reading that post.

Ben:  …actually reads, exactly.  Brock does this…

Brock:   In this kind of voice.

Ben:  Brock does read, believe or not.  Uhmm, in a world.  Anyways…

Brock:   (chuckles)  In a world of GMOs.

Ben:  A few other really interesting things, and of course you know about this, Brock because you read it.  One of the things is that this BT toxin.  The BT toxin is actually only activated in alkaline digestive systems.  And so, we talked about humans being you know, getting their guts ______[0:12:07.6] by BT toxin but the fact is human and mammalian guts are acidic.  Insect guts are alkaline, and I’m not necessarily getting on a pro-GMO soap box here, but I am pointing out a few things in the article that I think are really interesting.  So, another thing that the pro-GMO side says is that GMOs allow reduced risk of pesticides, and the anti-GMO side says that GMOs allow for increased use of pesticides.  But what it looks like is that when you look at herbicides, GMOs increase the use of herbicides but they actually reduce the use of insecticides.  And so there’s different toxins that are going to be a non-GMO vs. GMO based plants.  So, that was an interesting point that it made.  Another one was about round-up and whether or not round-up really does damage gut bacteria.  And it does turn out that there is potential for it to reduce the amount of beneficial bacteria in your gut when you’re consuming compounds that could be potentially susceptible to round-up residue on the food that you eat.  I just don’t believe there are many studies in they kinda point out some of the different things that round-up can do with the bacterial species.  Interestingly it reduces some of the species responsible for like salmonella and clostridium so.

Brock:   Yeah, another thing about that that really opened my eyes was that all of the studies are done on glyphosate which is a part of round-up but it’s only one very small part of round-up, so they haven’t done the studies on the concoction.  They’ve just found it on one…

Ben:  For share, there’s actually evidence that several ingredients in the round-up concoction actually can decrease the toxicity of glyphosate once it enters into the gut.  So yeah, we could go on and on obviously, or you could go read the article but I think that rather than us just saying all GMO is bad, we need to look at which GMO foods we are looking at, you know, conventional vs. organic strawberries for example.  We need to look at things like beets and soy beans, and we need to consider what actually happens when something is genetically modified and what the researches behind it, but I think for us to just say BT toxins, roundup ready is gonna destroy your gut.  That’s penny with a really broad brush.

Brock:   Yeah, yeah.

Ben:  So, check out the link to that article over on the show notes at bengreenfieldfitness.com/329.

Special Announcements:

Brock:    T-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-tit.  I’m doing the old school news thing.

Ben:  I always think of like hunt for red October and like the people in the bottom of the submarine.  Do – what I hear noises like that.

Brock:   I thought of a – the Muffet Show.

Ben:  Yeah.  The Muffet Show exactly.  Oh!  What’s it called?

Brock:   The news portion.

Ben:  It’s that guy – is the guy Smiley?  Or is it…

[0:15:02.2]

Brock:   No, no.  It’s Sam the Eagle.

Ben:  Oh yes!  Sam the Eagle.  What’s the name of the new show?  I see if I can – if I can do my Sam the Eagle impersonation.  It’s a…

Brock:       I can’t remember what the name it is.  It’s just Muffet News isn’t it?

Ben:  Muffet News!

Brock:   (laughs)  Is the little Grover like that?

Ben:  Alright, so this – this is the Ben Greenfield fitness episode of – Muffet News!  And…

Brock:   D-d-d-d-d-d-d-dit

Ben:  Oh, we had too much coffee this morning.  So, we will quit boring you guys and actually giving you some value but for us…

Brock:   Actually it wasn’t just coffee.  I had some Alpha Brain, that’s got blaming it on.

Ben:  There you go.  New exercise, I got new exercise for folks in today’s new flash and that is the sandbag row and drop, is what I’m going to call it because I can’t think of a better name.

Brock:   Sandbag row and drop.

Ben:  So, you get us sandbag or a sand bell or anything that is that you can fill with small rocks, sand, etc.  You put it on the ground in front of you, you grip it with one hand and you row it as high as you can like a single arm ballistic row at the very top of the row ‘cause you rip that thing off the ground so hard, you just let it fly.  It drops, you get it with your other hand, you row fast and let it fly.  So, you just row, drop, row, drop, row drop…

Brock:  Or so – you just holding it up to your shoulder or like…

Ben:  You’re doing like a bent-over row.  So like elbow past parallel, right.  And it’s like a combination – it’s almost, it gives you very, very similar feeling to like using a battle rope, you may not have a space for battle rope but it’s very similar like this ballistic upper body activity, and the way that I was doing my session last night was I was combining 60 seconds of that with doing farmer walks around the house.  So I technically had 2 of the sand bells for this workout, and one of the – well, both of the sandbells actually are brought to you by Onnit, as is this podcast episode.  So, I highly recommend everyone have at least one or two sandbells lying around.  I have the 50 pounders from Onnit, and this unlike the kettlebells don’t have champers on beard, any other faces on them but they are pretty cool.  So, check them out – sandbells, and you get a 5% discount on all fitness gear, and a 10% discount on all supplements when you go to onnit.com/bengreenfield.  That’s onnit.com/bengreenfield.  Try out that workout.

Brock:  Alright.  I will, I will.  Actually it sounds really, really interesting.  I just want to clarify, just so when you’re reaching down to get the sandbell, are you mostly squatting so your body is still upright or you actually bending from the waist?

Ben:  You’re – you’re basically in the same position you’d be in if you’re going to do a barbell bent row, right?  Like straight back, leg slightly bend, exactly.  Okay.  So, also I wanted to bring the topic of biohacking ‘cause I’m headed over to Finland at the end of September.

Brock:   Helsinki!

Ben:  Helsinki, exactly, to do the – thank you for doing the crazy Helsinki voice for me.

Brock:   We actually got an email from somebody there that was making fun of us….

Ben:  Anyways though, so I’m speaking at the Biohacking Seminar over there.  You can check it out, we’ll put a link to it in the show notes or you can go to biohackersummit.com, biohackersummit.com.  That’s where you can check out the biohacking summit, Sept. 23 to the 24th in Finland where among the things that they say they’re gonna delve into are implanted chips, gene therapy, bionic arms, biometric shirts, robotic assistants, and virtual reality.  And I thought that folks who are interested in those type of things may also be interested in a recent article that appeared on the Daily Mail about the man who tried to live as a goat.  He transformed himself using prosthetics and we just post a bunch of photos to the Facebook page for bengreenfieldfitness of this guy.  He appears of using a triathlon aero-helmet, and then a series of actual wooden/metal jointed prosthetics to turn himself into a goat so that he could go study goat behavior, learn the way that goat’s communicate, and potentially even attempt to create an artificial goat stomach that would allow him to eat grass.  One of the photos – he doesn’t appeared to actually implant the artificial goat stomach but he is eating grass.  In another photo, he’s fallin’ on his head and he can’t get up because the prosthetic goat legs proved to be a bit challenging for him to actually navigate with.  And the prosthetic leg component appear to be somewhat high challenge because his butt is taking way up in the air like one of those female baboon National Geographic commercials.  So, I’d – you may actually be careful around male goats with this particular come heather posture.  He appears to be adopting with his prosthetic goat limbs but he actually is serious.  He’s a researcher who set himself the goal of crossing the Swiss Alps and along the way he managed to convince a goat farmer to let him live with his herd and he convince a collegiate zoologist to help him create the bizarre prosthetics.  So, anyways, it’s a very interesting article and actually the video is worth watching, uhm, preferably when you want a little bit of comedic relief in your day.

[0:20:08.7]

So, go check that one.  We’ll link to that one in the show notes, so and of course check out the biohackersummit.com, and the only  other thing I should mention is that I personally will be dropping off the map next week.  I’m heading over to Fort Louise this weekend to speak at the army base over there in what’s called American Dream University.  Google that and check it out.  American Dream University – I maybe at Fort Louise for that and then I will disappear into the Colorado wilderness for a six-day long elf hunt on horseback.  So, I…

Brock:   So, no podcast…

Ben:  …I not be accessible.  I think we will have a podcast next week.  It will just be not live.  As a matter of fact none of them are live, Brock.  And actually, don’t release.

Brock:   Really?

Ben:  Let’s get rid of that little part.  Yes, we’ll have a podcast.  So, anyway.  Actually no one ask me that question again.

Brock:   So, no podcast next week?

Ben:  Ah, I don’t leave for the hunting trip until later on in the weekend.  However, I actually wasn’t going to tell people this on the podcast but I might as well open up since people pretty much know everything about my life anyways.  We aren’t gonna be able to record next week because I’m going in for what I consider to be a dangerous procedure but a procedure that I like to do anyways because few members of my family have shown things like polyps and cancer, and things of that nature.  I am actually at the rippled age of 33 going in next Wednesday for preventive colonoscopy.  Isn’t it interesting?

Brock:   Uhm, I thought you’re going to say a bad implant.

Ben:  Yes, and I’m going to write an article about the entire experience.  No joke, I am actually going to write about like preventive medicine, young people colonoscopy, etc.

Brock:   Yeah, we better document this whole thing for sure.

Ben:  I will document with high speed video cameras, exactly.

Brock:   Ohh!  That’s not quite what I had in mind but sure!

Listener Q and A:

Summer:  Hey Ben and Brock!  My name is Summer from Eastern Oregon.  You guys have answered my questions in the past, so a big thank you for that.  My question today is about arthritis.  I have arthritis up and down my entire spine.  My doctor thinks it’s due to stress.  I am employing a lot of these de-stressing techniques that you’ve already discussed on the show.  I’m living a low carb/paleo diet.  I’m 33 years old, and I wanted to training in and start racing in my life but I tapered back my intensity on my training considered where just trying to lower stressors in my body.  I heard Dave Asprey mentioned a while ago that he had cured himself of arthritis but I couldn’t find many resources on exactly how he did it, and I also wanna know what you have to say about it, Ben.  So, thank you guys so much.  I think you guys are both super awesome, and that’s it!

Brock:   I guess, wouldn’t it really, really depend on what type of arthritis it is?

Ben:  Like rheumatoid arthritis vs. osteo-arthritis?

Brock:   Yeah, like she says – like the autoimmune side of things vs. the wear and tear.

Ben:  Well, honestly like sometimes it can be – I’m gonna make up a word here – dual-fold.  Affected by dual fold variables.

Brock:   I like it.

Ben:  Multi-variable.  Anyways though, you can have an autoimmune response to certain food components that create an inflammatory fire storm that can aggravate an already inflamed stage of rheumatoid arthritis but could also cause enough collagenous breakdown for you also develop something much more like osteo-arthritis.  So, you can kinda dig yourself into a pretty painful corner from my joint standpoint and it can be both autoimmune as well as just basic physical degradation of the joint itself, but arthritis of course means joint inflammation.  That’s what it is, so.  As far as what you can do – you know, the question about Dave Asprey, I believe that he meditated his way out of arthritis with a small video game on smart phone with some electrodes…

Brock:   Really?  Are you being fictitious.

Ben:  …on big toe.  I believe that Dave’s arthritis relief was primary related to his switch to like his bulletproof diet or version very close to what is now his bulletproof diet.

Brock:   So, it would have been exactly what you’re talking about with the inflammation, a bad diet?

Ben:  Well, one of the top diets that I personally recommend for joint pain in the past has been an autoimmune diet protocol.  And when you look at an autoimmune diet protocol, the idea behind it is it’s working to remove inflammation or at least reduce inflammation in things like the intestines and the joints because they’re removing foods that tends to be immune triggers and cause what are called autoimmune flare-ups, joint flare-ups, gut flare-ups, etc.

[0:25:06.2]

So, the idea is that there are a variety of foods that are basically not allowed on an autoimmune-based diet.  The biggies are nuts which is really annoying for most folks.  Seeds, beans, legumes, grains, sugar, alcohol, right?  like xylitol, and stevia, and mannitol, a lot of fruits especially like fructose-based fruits, dairy products, alcohol, chocolate, eggs.  Like at first glance, it sounds like you’re not allowed to eat anything at all.  But really, and I’ll link to the particular cookbook that I like for this is called the Autoimmune Cookbook.  You are allowed to have quite a bit of fats, olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, lard, bacon fat, ghee.  You’re allowed to have most coconut products, right, like coconut aminos, coconut milk, and shredded coconut, vegetables that are – any vegetables, I like it, except night shades are allowed.  Bone broth, grass-fed meats, poultry, seafood, for sweeteners you can use honey or maple syrup, and so there are quite a few things that are allowed, shall we say on that diet, one of the issues is it’s very, very low because of the nature of it’s very, very carbohydrate.  You kinda have to shift into a little bit more of the grass-fed meats, and the poultries, and the seafood if you are an athlete just so you get some like that gluconeogenesis and some of the carbs from the high amount of protein on that particular diet but that’s basically what it is, and yeah, it can be very, very efficacious for anything immune related including arthritis.  I should clarify that I’m not a doctor and this is not to be misconstrued as medical advice.  I do pretty good in a white lab coat though like a little pen protector.  And one of those little…

Brock:   Hmm, stethoscope instead of a tie.

Ben:  Yeah, and a hat with a little light on it.  So I can look in the people’s mouth and stuff.

Brock:   Yes, their mouths.

Ben:  Anyways though, when you are looking at a state of inflammation, what that does is basically doing as something very, very similar to what something like an anti-inflammatory diet or the bulletproof diet would be doing which is removing a lot of the things that will contribute to joint inflammation.  Now, if I personally – if I personally had arthritis, not only would I be shifting on to a diet very much like that but in addition to that diet, I would be – I’ll give you four other things.  That’s one thing I would do, is that diet.  Number 2 is I would do a very, very high amount of a good, clean bone broth like an organic bone broth that includes a lot of like turmeric, and garlic, and ginger, another anti-inflammatories in it.  I’m a huge fan of the stuff made by The Brothery if you don’t wanna make your bone broth yourself.  Obviously recipes abound for bone broth but I’ve had the guy – Chef Lance who runs this bone broth place, The Brothery and they ship pretty much anywhere.  They ship on ice, it comes straight to your house, it’s tasty stuff, it’s got a lot of nutrients, a lot of gelatin, a lot of fat content, and it’s tasty.  So, that’s another thing that I would do is bone broth.  Speaking of bone broth, I’m making duck confit tonight.

Brock:   Were you making that last week?

Ben:  No, I was getting – always hunting kinda – hunting down on ducks last week.  I actually wound up ordering duck ‘cause I couldn’t find those specific variety of duck that is best for duck confit which is basically preserving a duck in fat for several weeks and then cooking it, right, like getting a nice, and crispy on a cast-iron skillet.  And so, I’ll be using like cloves, and pepper, and salt, etc. using that as a rub and then preserving duck wings and duck legs in duck fat for a few weeks basically in the refrigerator.  So…

Brock:  Yum.

Ben:  I’m making that tonight.  So, I’ll keep you posted.  Maybe I’ll send you some up there in the Great White North.

Brock:   That’ll be awesome.  I’m so hungry right now.  I have to use that.

Ben:  You can do like 3 or 4 cups bone broth a day.  If I have arthritis or someone that I love had it, that would be number two for sure along with the autoimmune diet.

Brock:     Actually hey, we got a question about that that I didn’t use.  It was somebody just saying like how much bone broth can you have in a day.  So, there you go.

Ben:  Uhm, there you go.  You can have more than – you could technically – you’re not gonna get a lot of carbohydrates from it, you’re not gonna get a ton of like whole proteins from it.  So, you got to add a few other things but you could do quite a bit of bone broth.

Brock:   You’re not gonna overdose on bone broth.

Ben:  No.  You just may have to pee a lot.  A lot of bone broth, a gelatinous, salty pee.  So… And the next thing is from a supplement standpoint, I would personally use this – the NatureFlex stuff.  I mean, I – that is what we have at greenfieldfitnessysytems, that is the exact name of it and it is every single bone and joint healing supplement known to man even though there isn’t any of the CBD in it ‘cause that a relatively new research study about the CBD and the osteo-blastic activity but it’s like you know, it’s…

[0:30:02.6]

Brock:   Do I hear a future product in the works?

Ben:  Maybe.  We’ll see because the – I take a ton of this NatureFlex stuff when I get injured.  I do like 4 capsules, 3 times a day ‘cause it’s like turmeric, and part cherry extract, glucosamine, chondroitin, ginger, garlic, like everything that you would need to heal up a bone or joint.  I swear by it when I’m injured.  I don’t take it all the time cause frankly taking 12 a day is a lot, but I would definitely be on something like that if I were arthritic or having lots of joint issues.  So, that’ll number 3 in addition to bone broth and autoimmune diet.  Next would be – I’m not sure if you’ve heard of this before but PEMF coil therapy.  So, I’ve talked about pulse electric magnetic fields, right, like the earth pulse which is a device that you can place underneath your mattress to enhance sleep very similar to like if you’re doing like earthing or grounding.  And pulse electric magnetic therapy has been shown to reduce inflammation as what can inhibit the growth and death of unwanted lymphocytes which leads to inflammation.  And it also has – because these joints can wrap or these coils that are in it like a PEMF device, they can wrap around joints.  So you can get one of these coils and there’s a few different products that are coil base like this earth pulse, one that I’ve talked about, that’s more of like a round magnet.  So it’s a little bit more difficult to wrap around a joint but there are some other systems that you can actually put around a joint.  One is called the – uhm, what’s it called – the micro-pulse, I believe it’s the name of it.  There’s another one that I think is called the – I wanna say it’s called the Soma-pulse.  I find a few that have coils in them and put a link to them in the show notes or to a review page that has some good EMF systems in it.  There’s a guy name Dr. Pollick, whose kinda expert on EMF and he’s got a lot of different PEMF systems available for both rent as well as purchase on his website.  So, anyways though, if you wanna get a PEMF, it’s like a coil that you can actually wrap around the joint, and that can add some really good pain relieving effect as well.  So…

Brock:   So, that’s just for pain relief, that’s not necessarily going to improve it long term?

Ben:  Hmm, it’s going to decrease inflammation but it’s not going to heal the source from which the inflammation is coming, right.  So if you have like rheumatoid arthritis or an osteo-arthritic condition and you just don’t have good joints left, yeah, something you could use on a daily basis to manage pain because it will shut down inflammation and pain for a good period of time.  So, I actually experimented with that at the – last year’s Bulletproof Biohacking Conference.  So, there’s that.  I would not wrap around it up your head by the way.  (laughs)  What I understand PEMF can be somewhat damaging to the gray matter in your brain, so…

Brock:       Yeah, don’t they use that for like treating extreme depression and PTST and stuff?  They actually do with the pulse…

Ben:  Yeah, the other place that I believe has PEMF coils is that guy I interviewed about the infrared sauna, Alex with the healthhacksreviewed.com, and I think he has some PEMF systems over there as well, and we and our listeners can get a discount code from him.  So, I’ll put a link over there as well.

So, we’ve got autoimmune diet, organic bone broth, NatureFlex, I would use like PEMF therapy, and then most of the exercise that I would do is I would get a good pair of aqua fitness shoes, I would get a good pair of these aqua like paddles that resist your hand and your arm movement as you move to the water, and believe it or not between these special fins that re built into aqua running shoes and then the resistance from these paddles, you can get your heart rate really high with water-based exercise.  So, I’ve got one guy that I’m training right now for Ironman, Louie Bell and he has some IT band issues so we’ve been using a ton of water running because it has been shown to be able to maintain VO2max in runners for a long period of time.  So, you can do sprints, you can do straight leg walks, you can do side-legs swings, you can do hops up of the water where you just turning your legs to get as high up the water as possible like a water polo player.  You can do arm swings, arm pushes, but it’s all in a deep water so you’re not touching bottom.  It’s a really, really good way whether you’re injured, whether you have an arthritic condition, whatever to maintain cardiovascular performance and get some benefits of resistance training while you’re doing it.  I wrote a pretty comprehensive article over at the Quick and Dirty Tips website about water-based exercise and the equipment that you need, and some sample workouts like that.  So go ahead and go sign up for the aerobics class where the old ladies wear hairnets and the very, very colorful swim caps with foam dumbbells and get your water exercise now.

Brock:       I’m a huge fan of using that in tapers.  If anybody, if any like the people I coach for marathon and even for longer triathlons, that’s – I throw that stuff in for a taper period.

[0:35:03.0]

Ben:  Mmm, yeah.  Yeah, you could also use it for that, so.

Brock:  It also makes them completely insane ‘cause it’s so boring.

Ben:  Yeah, I mix it up quite a bit.  So I do like half-hour sessions in this aqua fitness pool – this above ground fitness pool that I have and I do everything from like hypoxic swim sets, to underwater swim sets, to butterflies, to running in place. to running backwards, to doing leg swings – like once you’ve got kinda of like just like a weight-training circuit, right? If you are going into whatever, 20 sets of 10 bench press you get bored pretty quickly, same thing with water running – if you’re just gonna run, you’re gonna get bored pretty fast versus if you strain together a lot of different intervals and modes of trainings.  So go read that article, I’ll link to it over in the show notes at bengreenfieldfitness.com/329.

Troy:    Hey Ben and Brock, this is Troy from Jacksonville, Florida.  I had a question on unconventional performance enhancers.  I was reading an article that said that Luke Cummo, an MMA fighter, would use urine therapy to help with his performance.  I also read that the – that the NFL is using Viagra as a performance enhancer.  So I just want to get your take on those performance enhancers and any other ones that are kind of under the radar?  Thanks.

Brock:  I guess if you’re drinking somebody’s pee it would make you angry and mean, maybe that’s the biohack there.

Ben:  You know, most forms of urine therapy are what are called auto urine therapy.  So you’re not drinking other people’s urine or as they say in urine therapy often, other people’s gold.  But (chuckles)…

Brock:  (chuckles)

Ben:  You are drinking right now.  Now if you look at urine, the truth is it’s a relatively as you may have heard before, it’s relatively sterile and there’s not a lot of waste in it.  So you’ll get about 95% water, around 2 ½% urea, and about 2 ½% like salt and minerals, and amino acids and enzymes and even hormones – so it’s not necessarily going to kill you but there’s a very interesting article and I will link to it in the show notes about this fella who is named Yoshizo Machida, I  don’t know if I’m pronouncing his name exactly correctly but he’s a UFC fighter, and he does this auto urine therapy and the article even quotes a bible verse from Proverbs 5:15 that says “Drink waters from thy own cistern, flowing water from thy own well.”  So apparently some people have taken that to mean that chugging warm pisses is biblically appropriate and may actually help you with performance enhancement.  There is zero research that even though, like I mentioned, the urine therapy is not going to kill you, there’s zero research that this is efficacious for actual performance enhancement.  So it may temporarily stave off dehydration though if you aren’t drinking super, duper dehydrated yellow urine, so there’s that.

Brock:  There’s that.

Ben:  So basically, interesting article but zero, literally, zero evidence behind this stuff, like there’s some stuff that you can dig and find suggested evidence for this one, is pretty much zero.  But there are some other things, interesting things that UFC fighters do that we could look into as potential biohacks that do or do not work.  One that’s gotten a lot of popularity of late for UFC fighters is the idea of cryotherapy using these chambers to do everything from enhanced performance to triggering the release of endorphins, triggering the release of anti-inflammatory molecules, shutting down cytokine, etc.  There is a lot of evidence when it comes to cryotherapy that putting on you know, your socks usually some kind of mask to protect your face, some gloves, sometimes something to protect your ears may actually cause a little bit of not only a metabolic response like a metabolic fat loss response but also an anti-inflammatory response in terms of shutting down cytokines, mobilizing some fat in the brown adipose tissue, etc.  However, here’s the deal: there is not compared to jumping in the very cold water, an enormous advantage between cryotherapy chambers and cold water emersion, and the fact that there is hydrostatic pressure present when you are immersing cold water causes less what’s called lymph fluid backflow to occur and I have an article I wrote about this also at the Quick and Dirty Tips website – meaning that cold water immersion is probably a less inflammatory way or a way to shut down inflammation even more compared to cryotherapy, even though many people find cold water immersion to be less comfortable, certainly a heck of a lot cheaper than paying whatever you know, 50, 70 bucks or whatever it cost to go to cryotherapy chamber.

Brock:  So is that sort of the same thing as like compression gear?  The water is exerting some pressure on you during lymph fluid?

Ben:  Uh-huh, yeah and you can actually get a better effect from doing cold water therapy like cold water immersion and ice baths, and some of the stuff Wim Hof and I talked about when I had him on the show – you can get a better effect from that if you wear a compression gear while you’re cold.  So you can actually go swimming in cold in compression, so there you go.

[0:40:13.4]

There are lots of funny looks at the pool – your local cold pool.  So another one is a hypobaric chambers and we just recently did an article about this at the Ben Greenfield Fitness show – both hypoxia and hyperoxia and again, there is evidence that it may reduce the rating of perceived exertion, in like a workout that you do after you do a hyperoxia, and then the hypobaric hypoxia may actually increase tissue oxygenation, lymph fluid, organ function and removal of some inflammatory byproducts.  So that one is again, one that is expensive but one that may actually work and one that we’ve talked about on the show before, again you can simulate into the poor man’s version of with something like hypoxic underwater sets, and we talked about when we did an issue or podcast on hypoxia how that’s been shown to do everything from increasing running efficiency to increasing the production of erythropoietin.  So just like you know, get your hands on like a free diving breath hold chart, and do some of the CO2 loading and the O2 loading that you’ll find in like most free diving charts either called static apnea tables, I believe is what they’re called so static apnea table means that you would do like an oxygen static apnea table would condition your lungs to store more oxygen, and you could do this underwater or above water but you hold your breath for a minute and then you breathe easy for 2 minutes then you hold your breath for a minute and 15 seconds and then recover for 2 minutes, then a minute and 30 seconds, then recover for 2 minutes and you go all the way up until you reach like you know, 1 to 1 breath hold to recovery ratio.  And then CO2 loading helps you to really get used to blowing off CO2 or to maintaining higher levels of CO2 in your system.  So, that would mean you like hold your breath for a minute and then you breathe for a minute, and then you hold your breath for a minute, and then you breathe for 45 seconds, then you hold your breath for a minute, and breathe for 30 seconds but CO2 static apnea and also O2 training together and especially doing an underwater can give you a lot of similar benefits like the hypobaric or the hyperbaric chambers.

Brock:  Cool!

Ben:  Yeah, I know.

Brock:  I enjoyed that.

Ben:  Mmm-hmm.

Brock:  Right now.

Ben:  So…

Brock:  (gasps)

Ben:  Yeah, go for it.  So Brock is passing out, let’s talk about another one: the training mask.  And this is another one that you tend to see used quite a bit by like MMA athletes, UFC athletes, etc. and the idea is that of course as we all know it’s not inducing a state of hypoxia or like it’s not decreasing oxygen in your blood or increasing carbon dioxide in a way that hyperoxia or hypoxia would.  Instead what this is doing is it increasing your resistance to ventilation and there’s like all these photos on the web of like you know, guys into Jiu Jitsu rolling around wearing a training masks or in doing power lifting with the mask, and it is a form of diaphragmatic stress, inspetorian and expetorian muscular stress, and it can indeed strengthen those muscles and also engage or cause you to engage your lower belly more when you breathe just because it’s so freaking hard to breathe.  And I personally use an elevation training mask almost every day right?  Like so when I did 30 minutes of infrared sauna today I was wearing an elevation training mask, and I also combine with hypoxia right? So I have an altitude generator in my garage that I’ll use to go out and do like you know, sprints on the treadmill with.  So I’m a fan of – if you’re able to, including both resistive inhalation and exhalation, and then also hypoxic inhalation and exhalation if you wanna kinda get the best of both worlds.  So the elevation training mask, those would beat out the urine therapy, cryotherapy – expensive but what also beat out the urine therapy and you could do cold water immersion as a poor man’s version of that hypobaric or hyperbaric chambers.  Those would beat out urine therapy again, poor man’s version is breathing underwater for example, this nitric oxide so is a beta alanine and some arginine – some of these other pre-cursors that can increase nitric oxide.  The problem with Viagra because I have experimented with it before for training – the problem is that if you for any reason become sexually aroused during training, Viagra has the unique ability to be able to give you a boner on the spot no matter where you’re at. So if you’re say you know, playing in a football game when you look over and you see a pretty girl, you could actually have an embarrassing on field moment.  So I don’t recommend Viagra unless you wanna be popping up a tent on your running shorts.

Jon:  Hey Ben, it’s Jon here.  I was just calling in – thanks for the great show.  I was interested in the new research out that shows that spine shapes may have been J-shaped in the past and have become S-shaped in modern history leading to back pain…

[0:45:16.0]

whereas the back pain during the J-shaped spine period which was most of human history may not have existed.  So I wonder if you had thoughts on how whether this may be true and if so, how am I go about producing a J-shaped spine?  Thanks!

Ben:  So what do you think Jon was doing when he recorded this?

Brock:  My guess is jogging on the spot.

Ben:  Jogging, roller coaster… training mask…

Brock:  But my – I have a horrible feeling in the back of my head that he’s got a really weird shaped spine and he’s just having trouble breathing.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah that’s possible.

Brock:  Jon, write to us and let us know if you’re okay.

Ben:  Possible he’s a Q-shaped spine.  Yeah, this whole like J-shaped spine thing is really interesting – so there’s this author named Esther Gokhale, I don’t know if that’s exactly how you pronounce her name.  She’s got this book called “8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back”, and I met Esther years ago at this – a thing called AHS, the Ancestral Health Symposium.  And her shtick is basically that if you look at the average Westerner American spine from the side, it shaped like the letter ‘S’ right?  It curves at the top and then back again at the bottom, but what Gokhale found when she travelled around the world taking photos and videos of people who were like walking with water buckets on their head or collecting firewood or like weaving or gardening or you know, hunting, gathering stuff like that, the spine is not actually shaped like that – it’s shaped like a ‘J’.  So if you also look at drawings from Leonardo Da Vinci – the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle guy who wrote the…

Brock:  My favorite turtle…

Ben:  Grey’s Anatomy is another example of this.  The spine is not in those drawings or in Grey’s Anatomy shape like an ‘S’.  So it’s pretty much flat all the way down to the back and then at the bottom it kinda curves to stick the butt out, so.

Brock:  Okay, so the only part that’s changed is at the top.

Ben:  Yes, well also there’s a little bit more of a protrusion because of  gluteal enhancement at the bottom.  So it’s more of a ‘J’ shape then an ‘S’ shape.  So what this Dr. Esther, I believe she’s a doctor – she might not be a doctor, she might just be a poser.

Brock:  She’s smart doctor wanna be.

Ben:  Yeah.  Anyways though, she developed the series of exercises in her book that are designed to teach you how to use your abdominal muscles, your core, etc. to get your spine to be more like a J-shaped than an S-shaped, and then it goes into you know a lot of things you’d think would be kind of intuitive like lengthening your hip flexors and turning on your butt with butt-strengthening exercises and stuff like that.  Some of the main things that she says though is that you wanna to do a shoulder roll.  So you pull your shoulders up, you push them back and then you let them drop, so backward shoulder roll to kind of what she describes as “park your shoulders in the correct position.”  Another thing is to lengthen the spine, so she has to like take a deep breath and grow tall every time you breathe in you imagine yourself growing even taller every time you inhale.  She recommends squeezing your glute muscles as you walk to help to train your butt like turn back on your butt muscles, so you tighten your butt when you take each step which I personally think would be extremely uncomfortable, potentially lead to constipation or at least the look of constipation…

Brock:  Oh yeah, definitely that.

Ben:  I think heavy squats are just as good way to turn on your butt, but there’s that.  Don’t put your chin up, she recommends basically taking like a bean bag or a folded wash cloth or a tennis ball of something like that, and bouncing it on the top of your head and trying to push your head against the object, and what she says that’ll do is lengthen the back of your neck and allow your chin to angle more down than up.  So basically what she’s recommending more or less is that she wants you to look like one of those people from like Pride and Prejudice…

Brock:  Hmmm!

Ben:  …whose like standing tall and erect with the butt slightly protruded in a not quite baboon, not quite goat man level but just a little bit of a buttocks protrusion as you stand straight up with the shoulders peeled back as though you’ve never seen a laptop in your life and that is how you get a J-shaped spine, so.

Barbara:   I’m wondering if you can make a comment on far infrared saunas versus near infrared saunas, and also if you can recommend any of the portable infrared saunas that are available?

Ben:  So I actually asked my friend Alex Tarris about this – he’s the guy who I mentioned earlier has the Health Hacks Reviewed website we could probably go get like these you know, he’s got like PEMF coils and cryo chambers and low gravity treadmills and underwater treadmills, and exercise with oxygen therapy, and hyperbaric chambers like pretty much you name it –

[0:50:05.2]

he’s got it or videos like educational series videos about it on the site – so it does have some good stuff over there and he does have some reviews of like some of the portable saunas.  To my understanding, it’s very difficult for the heaters in a portable sauna to get even close to like one of these you know, like a clear light infrared sauna with the big, huge like the heaters and that – like they’re surrounding my entire body and then there’s two big red ones in the front of that sauna – that’s the one that I personally have that we did the whole article about.  So you just can’t get as hot or as powerful with a portable sauna even though I believe he reviews a few like low EMF versions over there.  So you may wanna go check out the Health Hacks Reviewed website.  I’ll link to it in the show notes as well.  Now, when you look at near infrared versus far infrared: near infrared technically do put out even less EMF than a far infrared even though some of these newer far infrared saunas like the ClearLife for example, they don’t produce as much electromagnetic pollution – so that’s an argument that it kinda depends on the sauna on the near versus the far sauna.  The other thing with the near infrared lamp is when you look at like a far infrared, it’s got a little bit different spectrum in terms of the actual light that’s emitted from it.  So an infrared lamp sauna emits mostly light that’s near what’s called the middle infrared energy range.  And that is supposedly very, very therapeutic to the body.  It is supposedly more relaxing to the body even though it’s less hot and it would vibrate at a lower frequency than like an infrared – than a far infrared sauna.  So what that means is like near infrared is a little bit more therapeutic perhaps even a little less comfortable, won’t cause you to sweat for quite as long a period of time.  So if you have something like let’s say, adrenal fatigue or something like that right? Or like maybe a near infrared type of light sauna would be better for you – they use less electricity ‘cause it’s less powerful obviously, they’re safer but they’re less hot.  Interestingly, the Biomat which is like that mat that you lie on that has the capability for both near and far infrareds.  So when you jack up really, really high like it’s gonna get hotter you’ll get the light penetrating a little bit farther into your body to kinda like heat you, to improve circulation, to improve sweating, etc.  So that’ll kinda give you a little bit of both – I suppose I hadn’t even thought of this, I could bring my Biomat into my far infrared sauna…

Brock:  (laughs)

Ben:  …and lie on my Biomat inside the sauna and get both near and far at the same time, so.

Brock:  You’re totally some genetic mutation has gonna happen at some point in that chamber and you’re gonna come out either like the hulk…

Ben:  (laughs)

Brock:  …or like mini-me, yes.

Ben:  So basically near infrared saunas are still very, very therapeutic, and they’re cheaper, they’re often more portable because in many cases they’re just like lamps that you can put anywhere that you can put certain body parts under, but ultimately far infrared saunas pack a way bigger punch when it comes to like heating, detoxification – everything like that – the only issue of course with the far infrared is you do have more potential for electro- magnetic pollution and heavy use of electricity if you use like the wrong type of unit.  So anyways though, check out the Health Hacks Reviewed website for some like some video reviews and stuff like that of you know, the far versus the infrared saunas but I would personally go for like a far infrared sauna or if you’re gonna go for near infrared, get something that you could also have the option of using with the far infrared feature like a Biomat.

Jason:  Hey Ben, this is Jason from New York and I have a couple of questions about prostatitis that I came down with from lifting heavy weights.  I’m wondering if you have any tips on how to recover from that further?  I’m not supposed to lift weights and I was supposed to avoid anything that would induce a high intra-abdominal pressure, so I’m wondering if you have any tips on that, and also ways to maintain or even add muscle mass while I can’t lift weights.  Thanks again for everything, loved the podcast.

Ben:  So here’s the deal: I don’t really wanna talk about prostatitis.  We’ve already talked about arthritis; we’ve already talked about drinking our own urine…

Brock:  Mmm.

Ben:  We’ve ventured too far down the nerdy health pathway…

Brock:  Mmm.

Ben:  …in today’s podcast.  I would rather go meat head on Jason and tell him how he can still maintain muscle mass without lifting weights.

Brock:  I think that is the cracks of this question.

Ben:  I think that was…

Brock:  It was probably under control, he just doesn’t want to turn into a weakling while he’s recovering.

Ben:  I know we’ve got lots of listeners listening right now and have prostatitis but I just gotta tell ya: go to your doc about the prostatitis thing or listen to other episodes that we’ve done on prostate information ‘cause we have.

[0:55:10.3]

And instead let’s talk about how you could actually gain or at least maintain muscle without lifting weights.  There is a concept and a type of program, there’s a guy named Todd Kuslikis – I think it’s how you pronounce his name – he has a program called the “Bodyweight Overload Program”, and the idea behind it is that you are fatiguing your muscles with very, very kinda like low rep isometric type of movements, and I believe he has some very, very high rep like push-ups and squats and stuff like that in there as well.  With the idea being that you don’t necessarily need to – to produce like a hypertrophic satellite cell response.  You don’t necessarily have to tear a muscle as much as you need to stress a muscle, produce an acidic state, produce a state of hypoxia and overload the muscle.  So yes, when you do a dead lift or a squat or you resist a muscle as it’s lengthening – you’re gonna get a significant amount of muscle fiber tearing and the hypertrophic response to that is going to be the greatest.  That could be a form of training called isotonic training basically where you’re moving the muscle through a range of motion both concentrically as it’s shortening and then eccentrically as it’s lengthening.  But you can also do either body weight exercises in high volume with low rest periods creating a state of hypoxia and acidity and fatigue without creating quite as much stress on the joint and still get a satellite cell response – lower satellite cell response but in many cases, if you are going to fatigue, right? Like not doing 10 push-ups but doing like you know, depending who you are 50 or 60 or 100, then you can maintain muscle mass and probably even build a little bit of muscle as well.  Now the other thing that I think is an even more intriguing component of Todd’s program are isometric exercises.  And the idea behind isometric exercises is you are pushing against something or pulling against something but the joint is not actually moving through a range of motion, and the way that you have to do this, if you really want to get a significant increase in muscle volume or maintenance of muscle mass is that you wanna go all out.  So they actually had a study that they did where they had two different groups of subjects do isometric exercises: one group did the 100% maximum voluntary contraption, the other group did the 60%, and both groups actually in that study had significant gains in muscle but the 100% group who went really, really hard with their isometric holds – they saw a much higher gains.

Brock:  That’s not a huge surprise, I guess.

Ben:  Yeah, exactly.  But the idea is you can gain either way but you’re gonna gain a lot faster and a lot better if you go all out when you do your isometric exercises.  The other thing that’s really important to do is to make sure that you breathe through them, right? So if you’re doing an isometric squat hold or an isometric lounge – very slow controlled breaths, right? Like concentrating on a deep nasal inhalation and then exhaling through pursed lips nice and slow can really help with the efficacy and the amount of tension that you can build up.  The other cool thing and this is a tip from Pavel Tsatsouline,  he’s a really, really good speaker…

Brock:  Tsatsouline!

Ben:  …body weight exercise coach among other things, but clenching your fist causes you to you know, like if you clench your left fist really hard and then shake someone’s hand – you’re gonna shake their hand with a lot more force, the same goes for any type of exercise if you have your fist clenched when you’re doing say like an isometric squat, you’re gonna generate more tension than if you had your fist open, just like this defensive response when you clench your fist.  As a matter of fact, I’m clenching my fist right now.  Am I talking louder?

Brock:  (laughs)

Ben:  Do I sound more aggressive?

Brock:  (chuckles) You sound so angry.

Ben:  Hmm.  So anyways though, there are variety of exercise so for example, some of the exercises that Todd has in his program are just the basic like bridge, right? You get up into a bridging position with a maximum contraction of your glute, your hamstrings, etc. – either full bridge or you know, half bridge depending on your fitness – you dig your heels into the ground really, really hard, and then you just basically hold that for as long as possible – a maximum force come back down, take a few breaths and then repeat until you’re completely fatigued.  Another one will just be like wall pushes where you’re pushing as hard as you can against the wall, holding the contraction in a controlled manner for like 30 seconds, and then recovering and then pushing again and doing like you know, three to four rounds of that.  You can do the classic bicep curl or the gun show exercise, right? Where you just flex your arms as hard as possible for 30 seconds, 45 seconds, 60 seconds – the cool thing about these is a lot of them you can do like in a sauna right? Or in a cryotherapy chamber…

Brock:  In a car or plane.

Ben:  In a car or a plane.  That’ right.

Brock:  If you wanna get strange looks from the other passengers.

[1:00:08.0]

Ben:  Yeah.  Field goal pushes is a cool one.  You basically put your back against the wall while standing upright and erect, and I just had to say erect.

Brock:  (chuckles) Again?

Ben:  Yeah, again.  And you put the backs of your hands against the wall and externally rotate against the wall as hard as possible, right? You hold that for 30 seconds.  You can do turtle crunches where you get down on the ground and just curl up in a ball as hard as possible or you can do that in a plank position as well, and you hold it and you hold it and hold it and then you recover and you do that multiple times.  So isometric exercises can actually help quite a bit with the maintenance of muscle mass and that’s what I would be doing to something very, very similar to this body weight overload program, and I will link to that in the show notes for you, but that’s one thing I would do – another program that you could look into…

Brock:  I just wanna…

Ben:  Go ahead.

Brock:  …so Jason mentioned that he needs to avoid anything that would induce high abdominal pressure.  I feel like some of those isometric exercises would introduce some high abdominal pressure.

Ben:  Yeah, but like I mentioned, I’m not necessarily gonna talk about the management of prostatitis per se…

Brock:  Okay, okay. (crosstalk)

Ben:  Yeah, but with Jason like – yeah, so some of those exercises like say an external rotations standing upright against the wall, that’s not going to cause a great deal of  intra-abdominal pressure.

Brock:  Yeah.

Ben:  Whereas like the front plank whole where you’re driving the mid section of your body – you know, the upper body and the lower body up towards the core and holding that as hard as possible – yeah, that is gonna create some intra-abdominal pressure.  So…

Ben/Brock:      Jason…

Ben:  if your prostate…

Brock:  proceed with caution…

Ben:  …pops out, then we apologize but it means…

Brock:  Actually, might be something, that might be good if it pop…

Ben:  Incorrect.

Brock:  That’s true.

Ben:  We could – this could be a treatment for like appendicitis…

Brock:  Shoot that sucker out, Jason.

Ben:  Yep, exactly, pretty much anything.  Just basically, get rid of it.

Brock:  I’m sorry I said that.  There you go.

Ben:  It’s about an alien.

Brock:  No, it skitters across the floor (laughs).

Ben:  Yeah.  So I’ll link to the “Bodyweight Overload Program” in the show notes if you wanna check that out and try implementing something a little bit more bodyweighty, and I’ll link to everything else we talked over there if you go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/329 including of course the most entertaining thing of all: the biohack goat man.

Brock:  (chuckles)

Ben:  So that being said, we have a review to read.

Brock:  Oooh.

Ben:  And this particular review is a little long one but it’s highly entertaining – I think – alright, I take it because I thought it was really entertaining.  If you leave us a review on iTunes, and you hear your review read on the show, just email [email protected] that’s [email protected], and we’ll send you a handy-dandy gear pack of like water bottles and cool tech t-shirts and anything else we decide to throw in there, so…

Brock:  Oh, I didn’t know there were mystery prizes.

Ben:  Mmm-hmm.  Yeah, mystery prizes occasionally, random things.

Brock:  There’ve used the stone.

Ben:  Stone in the box that I forgot to take out of the box.

Brock:  Oh, I see.

Ben:  Exactly.  So coffee grinds…

Brock:  Mmm.  Used?

Ben:  Cartons.

Brock:  Simply basically you’re going through your garbage.

Ben:  Let’s read this review.  Man, this is a long one.  Do you wanna take it or let me take it?

Brock:  Ah, we could do – why do we can tag team up?

Ben:  Okay.  When you say ‘go’ then I’ll start reading.

Brock:  Okay.

Ben:  I’ll say ‘go’ then you start reading.

Brock:  Alright, the title is what is – “What is Ben Greenfield?” 5 stars from Mover33.  Go.

Ben:  “After listening to the show after almost a year, I can’t decide what Ben Greenfield is, but there are some options: is he a shark?”

Brock:  (chuckles)

Ben:  “He’s constantly on the move and never stops.  He hunts animals in the wild and strives to be in his natural environment daily.  He also loves to do some daily hypoxic training in the ice cold water of his pool.” Go.

Brock:  “Is he a superhero? He has been experimenting on himself for decades and he has quite possibly become a superhero.  He has a quick witted sidekick named Brock Armstrong” Hey, I’m quick witted.  Nice!

Ben:  Hey.

Brock:  Yes.  “They both saved lives and improved the health of thousands around the world.” Go.

Ben:  “Also Ben and Jessa, Ben’s superhero wife, are both claiming to raising superhuman twin boys.  Is he an explorer? Ben goes out of his way in a weekly basis to explore new frontiers in medicine, science and fitness.  Lewis, Ben, Clark – new manly deep voice and Sacajawea, Brock…

Brock:  (laughs out loud)

Ben:  Take each person on a journey through these topics.”  This person was high or whatever it is –

Brock:  (laughs)

Ben:  “Lewis and Clark maybe the main focus on leaders of this expedition but Sacajawea is a pivotal person…

Brock:  (laughs)

Ben:  …explaining this complicated overall topics.  Sacajawea leaves the entire group…

Brock:  I think that’s historically accurate.

Ben:  …and then smoothen understanding while as Lewis start speaking scientific jargon.” Go.

Brock:  (laughs) “There are many other things that Ben could be but mainly he has a great person and his health and fitness advice is superior to all podcasts.  He may go off to deepen sometimes but Brock does – Sacajawea – “does an excellent job of keeping him on topic.  This podcast has changed my life and it will change yours, too.”

Ben:  Uhm, that will do, Sacajawea.

Brock:  (laughs)

Ben:  That will do.

Brock:  (laughs)  I really enjoyed that – I – thank you, Mover 33.

Ben:  Well, I’m going to adjust my raccoon tail cap.  What do you call it?  The raccoon hats…

Brock:  Does it have a name?

Ben:  I don’t know, raccoon hat.  Let me adjust my raccoon hat, put on my snow shoes and get my old trusty horse out and go out exploring for a little while…

Brock:  I’m gonna put my buck skin on and fix my long braid.

Ben:  (laughs)

Brock:  I don’t know what else I have.

Ben:  Colored mini popcorn or whatever the ancient Native American tribes used to do with…

Brock:  Hmm, I’ll do something with maze.

Ben:  That’s right, just do something with maze and until next week.  We hope that you have a wonderful time.  We may have a special episode next week because I will be somewhere the doctor’s office getting a long six foot tube suck up my butt – but either way, we will of course, bring you content.  So thank you for listening and have a healthy week.

You’ve been listening to the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast.  Go to bengreenfieldfitness.com for even more cutting edge fitness and performance advice.

[1:07:25.3]     END

 

 

Aug 19, 2015 Podcast: Top 5 Natural Arthritis Cures, Top 5 MMA Biohacks, J-Shape vs. S-shape Spine, Far Infrared vs. Near Infrared Saunas, and How To Gain Muscle Without Weightlifting

Have a podcast question for Ben? Click the tab on the right (or go to SpeakPipe), use the Contact button on the app, click Ask a Podcast Question at the bottom of this page, Skype “pacificfit” or use the “Ask Ben” form at the bottom of this page.

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News Flashes:

You can receive these News Flashes (and more) every single day, if you follow Ben on Twitter.com/BenGreenfieldFacebook.com/BGFitness and Google+.

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Special Announcements:

This podcast is brought to you by Onnit. Go to Onnit.com and instantly get 5% off fitness gear and 10% off supplements. Ben recommends getting an Onnit sandbag for your nice relaxing sandbag walks on the beach.

Well…when do you think biohacking has gone too far? How about turning yourself into a goat? 

Sep 23-24, 2015. Ben is speaking at the Biohackers Summit in Helsinki, Finland. Discover the latest in wearables, internet of things, digital health, and mobile apps to increase performance, be healthier, stay fit, and get more done. Learn about taking food, preparation, cooking, and eating to the next level with the latest science and kitchen chemistry. Even delve into implanted chips, gene therapy, bionic arms, biometric shirts, robotic assistants, and virtual reality. Two days with an amazing crowd and a closing party with upgraded DJs to talk about. Click here to get in now.

New Greenfield Longevity Panels. Working closely with WellnessFX, America’s top laboratory for concierge blood testing and online access to all your blood testing results, Ben has developed the “Greenfield Longevity Blood Testing Package”, which is the most complete blood testing package that money can buy. There is one package specifically designed for men, and one for women. This is by far the most comprehensive blood testing package that exists, and Ben created it for the health enthusiast, biohacker and anti-aging individual who wants access to the same type of executive health panel and screening that would normally cost tens of thousands of dollars at a longevity institute. Virtually all hormones and all biomarkers are covered in this panel.

Ben Greenfield has officially launched his first work of fiction: “The Forest”. Twin brothers River and Terran discover a portal to a hidden forested world attacked by parasitic fungi, dark shamans, and serpents. Along with an assembled band of unlikely misfits that includes coyotes, whitetail deer, wood thrushes, and fox squirrels, they must unlock their unique powers to control the elements of earth, air, fire and water, and save the forest before the evil they’ve uncovered can spill back into their own world. Click here to read it now! New chapters released every 7-14 days.

The BenGreenfieldFitness Quarterly box has officially launched! When you sign-up, you’ll get a Quarterly handpicked box jam-packed with Ben’s favorite fitness gear, supplements, nutrients and research-proven biohacks.

Grab this Official Ben Greenfield Fitness Gear package that comes with a tech shirt, a beanie and a water bottle.

And of course, this week’s top iTunes review – gets some BG Fitness swag straight from Ben – click here to leave your review for a chance to win some!

 

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Listener Q&A:

As compiled, deciphered, edited and sometimes read by Brock Skywalker Armstrong, the Podcast Sidekick and Audio Ninja.

Top 5 Natural Arthritis Cures

Summer says: She has arthritis up and down her entire spine. Her doctor thinks it is because of stress. She is 33 and is using a lot of de-stressing techniques that you have discussed on the show and she follows a mostly paleo diet. She heard that Dave Asprey had cured himself of arthritis but couldn’t find out how. What would you do if you had arthritis?

In my response, I recommend:
Paleo autoimmune diet
Organic Bone Broth
NatureFlex
Water Exercise
PEMF Coils (check HealthHacksReviewed.com and use discount code bengreen15)

Top 5 MMA Biohacks

Troy says: He is curious about some under the radar performance enhancers. He was reading about an MMA fighter who is using urine therapy to enhance his performance. He also read that the NFL was using Viagra for performance. He’d like to know more about those and any other unconventional enhancers you know of.

J-Shape vs. S-shape Spine

Jon says (sounds like he is running while asking the q): He is interested in the new research showing that spine shapes were J-shaped in the past and are now S-shaped which has lead to back pain. What are you thoughts on this? Do think this is true? And if so, how would you go about getting a J-shaped spine?

In my response, I recommend:
book by Esther Gokhale – 8 Steps to a Pain Free Back

Far Infrared vs. Near Infrared Saunas

Barbara says: She is wondering is you can make a comment on Far infrared saunas vs. Near infrared saunas. What are the benefits and differences. Also can you recommend any portable saunas?

In my response, I recommend:
Biomat
Portable Saunas (check HealthHacksReviewed.com and use discount code bengreen15 on the Clearlight Curve Dome)

How To Gain Muscle Without Weightlifting

Jason says: He came down with prostatitis from lifting heavy weights. How can he best recover from that? He is not allowed to lift any weights, or avoid anything that would induce high abdominal pressure, so how can he maintain muscle mass while he can’t lift weights?

In my response, I recommend:
Bodyweight Overload program

 

Read more https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2015/08/329-is-the-gmo-food-scare-blown-out-of-proportion-top-5-mma-biohacks-much-more/

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